The Lwigale lab is pleased to welcome two new undergraduate researchers for the summer of 2011.

Dorothy Chou is a Rice University rising junior and a student in Rice’s Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) summer research program. Dorothy is working on corneal wound healing.

Samantha Paulsen joins us for the summer from University of Wisconsin – Madison. Sam is a rising senior and a participant in Rice’s Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB) summer research program via an NSF REU program.

Sam is working on in situ hybridization to analyze the expression of VEGF-A in the embryonic chick cornea and surrounding tissues. Her project will help us understand how a balance of pro- and anti-angiogenic factors that draw blood vessels into the eye, while preventing them from entering the cornea itself. VEGF-A expression is of particular importance because VEGF-A is a potent angiogenic factor that is expressed in the adult cornea, despite the fact that the cornea must remain transparent and thus avascular for proper vision. In future studies she plans to look at VEGF receptor expression.